Arnobius the Younger, in his commentary on the Psalms, refers to the reading in church of Passions of the martyrs. Written in Latin, probably at Rome, mid-5th c.
Evidence ID
E07381
Type of Evidence
Literary - Theological works
Arnobius the Younger, Commentary on Psalm 108
Ibi in memoriam redit iniquitas patrum eius. Cottidie legitur in ecclesia in conspectu dei, quanta mala fecerunt Christo, apostolis et martyribus, et peccatum matris eius populi, hoc est peccatum potestatis eius non deletur, sed fit contra dominum semper et perdet de terra memoriam.
'There the iniquity of his fathers returns into memory. Every day it is read out in church in the sight of God how many evil things they [the Jews] did to Christ, the apostles, and the martyrs, and the sin of his mother people, that is, the sin of its power, is not destroyed, but it is always against the Lord and he will wipe its memory from the earth.'
Text: Daur 1990, 173-4.
Translation: David Lambert.
Non Liturgical Activity
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the veneration of saints
Source
The writer known in modern scholarship as Arnobius the Younger (Arnobius Junior, Arnobe le Jeune, etc.) was active in the mid 5th century. Very little can be established about him: Arnobius was probably not his real name (the 'Junior' is a modern epithet to distinguish him from the apologist Arnobius of Sicca), and many of the works that have been attributed to him are anonymous. He seems to have been living in Rome when he wrote his works, but they contain indications that he came originally from Africa. It is not certain whether he was a cleric or a layman, though he refers to himself as a servus Christi, which indicates some kind of ascetic commitment. Two works by him are actually transmitted under the name Arnobius: a commentary on the Psalms, and the Disputation of Arnobius and Serapion, an attack on Eutychianism. Another work, the anonymous attack on the doctrine of predestination known as the Praedestinatus, has generally been attributed to him since the 17th century; further works were ascribed to him by Germain Morin in the early 20th century, though some of Morins' attributions are disputed (see E02264 on the Liber ad Gregoriam). More recently, Cécile Lanéry has argued that he was the author of some of the Roman Martyrdoms, including the Martyrdom of Sebastianus (see E02512)Discussion
This psalm (108 in the Vulgate, 109 in most English Bibles) calls on God to punish the psalmist's enemies. In Acts 1:16-20 Peter quotes it against Judas and it was regularly interpreted in early Christianity as referring to Judas, and by extension to the Jews (see e.g. Augustine's Enarratio on this psalm, or the commentary of Cassiodorus).This part of Arnobius' commentary is on verses 14-15: 'Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth' (KJV). As with other late-antique Christian commentators, Arnobius interprets the imprecations of the psalm as being directed against the Jews, and presumably the martyrs referred to are those like the protomartyr Stephen who were held to have been martyred by the Jews.
Bibliography
Text:Daur, K.-D., Arnobii Iunioris commentarii in Psalmos (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 25; Turnhout, 1990).
Further reading:
Lanéry, C., "Arnobe le Jeune et la Passion de Sébastien (BHL 7543)," Revue d'études augustiniennes et patristiques 53 (2007), 267-293.
Record Created By
David Lambert
Date of Entry